Working on your own home

[crispernator]

Hi all need to get some clarification on something ,if you buy a property in thailand ie: house are you able to do work on it yourself say redoing bathrooms ,painting ,doors general building /maintenance work ect or is it against the law for a farang to engage in this type of work .The reason i ask this is after reading all the types of work you cannot do there and some of them were carpentry,construction ect .It might sound like a silly question but for someone who doesnt live there and have a full grasp of the laws in relation to renovation or building laws i thought i would ask .

[JamesWest]

i was wondering about yard work. i was just pulling some weeds for a few minutes and i was getting weird looks from Thais walking by. I have had many Thai people tell me they will pull weeds for 100 baht. I don't want to get booted out of the country. i am on a retirement extension of stay and can't work at all.

i think if you work alone in your house then no problem.

but it is against the law to work in those "jobs".

and without work permit, then no work at all.

it is rare to see any farang doing any BASIC manual labor here. Farang owners of bars can't move a ashtray in their own business. i know a man who owns a restaurant bar at the beach. I watched him sit around and do nothing all day. his wife and Thai staff did everything. He reminded me he can't touch a thing and the Thais owning the same type business next door will report him.

i was worried about joining the picking up the trash on HH beach project. I could see immigration asking why white man clean beach?

[Takiap]

The short and simple answers is YES, you can work on your home as much as you want without having to worry about a thing other than the perspiration that quickly starts pouring off you.

Yes, you would problems if you own a business and you are seen working there without a permit, but regardless of what some people might tell you, you are free to work on your home. I painted my own home; did my own tiling; fitted all our windows; doors and etc. and I only got smiles from the countless police that drove and still do drive past daily.

[crispernator]

Thanks for the replies it was a bit of a worry as i am a tradesman and despise haveing to pay for something i know i can do myself .It is like car matenaince why would i pay someone to change the oil when i can do it myself to me if you can do a task on something you own why not ? I understand that if you own a business you can get into trouble pretty easy a guy i know had a coffee shop that his wife ran and he was arrested for sitting in there reading the paper someone had a bowl of sour grapes for breakfast .

[Big Boy]

While I think it extremely unlikely that you would have a problem, and even I, who hates DIY has done odd jobs; I still think it is a grey area. If inadvertently you upset the wrong person, you could have problems. Just be very careful, and do it little bit by little bit i.e. don't completely gut the house, and draw attention to yourself.

[JamesWest]

WORKING OF ALIEN ACT, B.E. 2551 (2008)

http://www.lawreform.go.th/lawreform/im ... /30442.pdf

i did not read the whole thing.
the words home, house do not appear in a search.
the word residence appears twice and not in reference to working there.
the word except appear six times. nothing about working on/in your house.
anyone want to post a link to the law where it says you can work on your house?
or find it for me?

i could be completely wrong, but the whole idea of this law is to make sure you don't take a job away from a Thai that a Thai can do.

also the word volunteer does not show up.

[StevePIraq]

Would this mean I can no longer make my own coffee at home and have to employ a lovely young girl to do it for me?

[JamesWest]

Would this mean I can no longer make my own coffee at home and have to employ a lovely young girl to do it for me?

yes. this is my entire justification for not doing a thing.

[dtaai-maai]

anyone want to post a link to the law where it says you can work on your house?
or find it for me?

There aren't many laws about what you CAN do. What you need to find is a law that says you CAN'T work on your house, car, etc.

[JamesWest]

well at what point does it become your "home" or "house"?

if you lease some land, and have all the materials to build a house delivered, in theory if you could do all the work yourself, at what point are you "just workin on your home"? 0%? 50% 100% completed? only the interior?

maybe you can do it all. sell and repeat.

[StevePIraq]

isn't the real point that it has to be "paid" work so if you are working on your own home you are not being paid so it is not "work"
If you own a business and do "work" it is paid as you are gaining the profits

[Big Boy]

But I thought unpaid volunteer work was also excluded. As I said earlier - a grey area.

[STEVE G]

isn't the real point that it has to be "paid" work so if you are working on your own home you are not being paid so it is not "work"
If you own a business and do "work" it is paid as you are gaining the profits

If you read the act, it states that "work" is irrespective of whether you're paid or not. In reality, I've never heard of anyone having a problem working on their own house and as mentioned above, I think the important bit is in not upsetting anyone who might complain. I watched one Farang completely build a small house out to the west over about two years and the locals seemed to see it as an eccentricity rather than a crime.
Anyway, I wish the guy mowing the lawn would hurry up so I can get back to sleep on the porch.

[crispernator]

Hi all thanks for the replies ,wont be gutting the whole property big boy it was mainly just about doing painting and general maintenace things and maybe kitchen updates ect ,some of you may well be right about grey area and this is what worries me .From what i have read in other posts the quality of thai tradespeople may vary somewhat the only thing i would not even consider doing is electrical you cant see it smell it or taste it but when it bites you know about it.My last trip i was in a hardware stor and looked at those very things kitchens ect the range of tiles was quite large to with some disturbing colours amongst them ,i picked out a stone benchtop that didnt line up and was direcly told by significant other "only for display" so what does the finished product look like ? hopefully better than what i saw.

[PeteC]

If you have a problem, it's usually because someone turned you in. A disgruntled tradesman who though he would get the job, a neighbor if your making too many pounding noises at bad hours. I've never know the MIB to patrol around and look for farangs cutting grass, cleaning pools, painting, and much of your work will be inside......but I don't speak for Hua Hin, just generally here.

I would just keep to yourself and not announce to anyone what you're doing. Pete